In Response To 'A Planet Unveiled'

by Tony Patino 

-- Firstly, Mr. Blackie's arguement of the planet being evil hinges on the assumption that the planet can think and rationalize. This is a trait that, in nature, is generally reserved to humans. For instance, we don't look at animal's behavior and examine it as being good or evil. Why? Simply because animals act on instinct. A cat does not take the time to rationalize whether it is wrong to eat a helpless baby bird. The cat doesn't consider that perhaps the bird should at least be able to escape, in order to make the whole situation more fair. Do we view this cat as being evil? Most would say "no" because the cat acts only on instict and has no ability to contemplate morals.

Bugenhagen's described the planet as one who would do whatever is necessary to alleviate it's pain and save itself is only a description of evil if the planet can rationalize. If not, it is simply like another life form trying to survive.

-- Another way to look at the situation is that the planet can indeed rationalize, but acts out of ignorance. The planet may not realize that Cloud and a handful of other humans are working towards it's benifit. Rather, it is much more likely that the planet only realizes that Midgar is like a spreading cancer, and that if it is not removed it will die. We as humans don't take time to consider that diseases may have feelings and lives too, all we care about is that we are not in danger of death.

And even if 20 out of every 11,000,000 cancer cells are trying to stop the others from killing it's host (which I'll admit is an unlikely scenario, since cancer cells really have no intelligence) we would not know. Since the majority of the cancer cells are harmful to us, we will remove them all... Regardless of whether they really intend to kill us or not.

I'm not discounting Mr. Blackie's theory. It does have merit and validity. I am simply stating that there are more ways than one to view the situation.